Martian Child is one of those films that can easily get lost in the rush. The film hasn’t done well, and it’s too bad because, even though it plays like a cable film, it does have some very good performances. It also gives Cusack, who did so well in the thriller 1408, another opportunity outside the romantic comedy genre.

The screenplay, by Seth E. Bass and Jonathan Tolins and based on the book by David Gerrold, is about struggling widower and sci-fi author David Gordon (Cusack), who, just can’t get beyond his loss of his wife two years earlier.

He has the idea to adopt. Now, David has always walked to his own beat and, while his wife’s best friend Harlee (Peet) encourages him, his caring sister Liz (Joan Cusack) doesn’t think it’s the best idea.

David goes forward, gingerly at first. Out of all the kids he could adopt, he is drawn to Dennis (Coleman). Dennis has been through one home after another. No one knows how to deal with a young boy that believes he has come from Mars.

When they first meet, Dennis is in his protective environment, a cardboard box that shields him from the sun. David is able to get him to come out of his box (with the help of sunglasses) and the two begin a shaky period of getting to know each other. Dennis loves to take pictures, snapshot of this world to take those pictures back to Mars. Dennis also tends to take things, doesn’t speak much and seems to be afraid.

For every good or great moment, there is a crisis – some big, some small. It doesn’t take a genius to know that this will all work out in the end. But it’s the journey and the lessons on parent/child relationships – just how much rejection can force a child into a fantasy world in order to cope, and the difficulty in moving on after a death of a person’s true love – that are at the heart of the story.

Is it deep? Certainly not, but the story takes hold because all the actors make a strong effort.

Cusack has been around so long he, in a way, has become unappreciated. Very rarely does he give a bad performance. Here, he doesn’t use the sympathy card. He works to bring some depth; when he looks at old photos and is brought to tears, Cusack pulls it off. Coleman and Cusack’s chemistry works as each shows the fear that both have.

Directing is Meyjes who worked with Cusack on the director’s first feature Max. In that film, Cusack portrayed an art dealer who meets a young painter named Adolf Hitler. Martian Child is obviously more mainstream, and, just as Meyjes had a pretty good hold on Max, he does the same here. Meyjes keeps the manipulative moments to a minimum, and the tearjerker elements are reined in.

Even with all the hard work from the actors and director, the film can’t shake the fact that it feels like a cable film only touching the surface; everything is pretty cleared up by the time the credits roll. Martian Child isn’t a bad film; it just would have worked better on television or on DVD.